Abu Saʻd Abd al-Karīm al-Samʻānī (nicknamed “Qiwām al-Dīn”), Shafi`i jurist and hadith-master, was an illustrious scion of the scholarly Samʻānī family. His father, Abul-Muẓaffar, was the Mufti of Khorasan, but died while Abu Saʻd was young, and the son was therefore raised by a paternal uncle and other relatives, who instilled in him the scholarly zeal of the family. He travelled extensively in pursuit of sacred knowledge, being especially devoted to the study of hadith, and his teachers totalled over 4,000. Abu Saʻd was born in Merv (in what is today Turkmenistan) in 506H / 1112 CE, and died in the same city in 562H / 1167 CE.